Journal
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
Volume 13, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1000560
Keywords
schizophrenia; predominantly negative symptoms; cortical thickness; asymmetry; amygdala
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study found that schizophrenia patients have structural abnormalities and asymmetry in the brain, which are associated with negative symptoms. Specifically, the emotion and communication dimensions of negative symptoms are negatively correlated with the structural asymmetry of the amygdala and superior temporal regions.
Negative symptoms play an important role in development and treatment of schizophrenia. However, brain changes relevant to negative symptoms are still unclear. This study examined brain structural abnormalities and their asymmetry in schizophrenia patients and the association with negative symptoms. Fifty-nine schizophrenia patients and 66 healthy controls undertook structural brain scans. Schizophrenia patients were further divided into predominant negative symptoms (PNS, n = 18) and non-PNS (n = 34) subgroups. Negative symptoms were assessed by the Negative Symptom Assessment (NSA). T1-weighted images were preprocessed with FreeSurfer to estimate subcortical volumes, cortical thickness and surface areas, asymmetry Index (AI) was then calculated. MANOVA was performed for group differences while partial correlations in patients were analyzed between altered brain structures and negative symptoms. Compared to healthy controls, schizophrenia patients exhibited thinner cortices in frontal and temporal regions, and decreased leftward asymmetry of superior temporal gyrus (STG) in cortical thickness. Patients with PNS exhibited increased rightward asymmetry of amygdala volumes than non-PNS subgroup. In patients, AI of cortical thickness in the STG was negatively correlated with NSA-Emotion scores (r = -0.30, p = 0.035), while AI of amygdala volume was negatively correlated with NSA-Communication (r = -0.30, p = 0.039) and NSA-Total scores (r = -0.30, p = 0.038). Our findings suggested schizophrenia patients exhibited cortical thinning and altered lateralization of brain structures. Emotion and communication dimensions of negative symptoms also correlated with the structural asymmetry of amygdala and superior temporal regions in schizophrenia patients.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available